Admittedly, the noble route is harder, but ....
(Q) said:
Victims of religion.
For all your anti-religious zeal, one thing you've forgotten is compassion. In the twenty-first century, it is a difficult proposition to place the full weight of blame for religious idiocy on any of the religious. Sure, there are those like the ICR "scientists" who decided to purify their outlooks and dispense with such silly notions as testable hypotheses, and there are the televangelists and political operatives who should, by virtue of their manipulative prowess, know better. But by and large, the greatest portion of religious idiocy afflicting cultures is inherited. Much as the abused child will often grow up to be an abuser, so, too, does the religiously deceived child often grow into a deceptive adult. These people are caught up in a cycle of—for want of a better term—"spiritual violence". Raised under a spectre of psychological exploitation and emotional blackmail, immersed in cultures that kowtow to dishonest influences and fearful sentiments, they perpetuate the cycle.
This does not mean that they escape accountability, but we must remember, if we hope to be effective agents of change at any level, to address the source of any given problem. Much of your scorn simply excoriates the symptoms. If I put a bandage on a lesion, have I cured the cancer? Even more so, if I take a pill to numb my own pain and frustration, have I addressed another's sickness?
Many seeming compulsive liars are, in fact, victims. This does not mean they do not lie. Nor does it mean their lies are not compulsive. But your address of such issues, over time, suggests that your actions are more about assuaging your own sentiments while leaving the problem intact. Some cynics suggest that we will never find a cure for cancer because doing so would disrupt a lucrative industry of research, treatment, and palliative care. If your actions help ensure that, tomorrow, there will still be a zealot to disdain, well, at least you've accomplished that. But for progress, it's not much of anything.
There will never be peace, some would say, because the arms dealers would have to find new jobs. And what of us, who fight against the hatred and dishonesty of religious zeal? What would we do, if by some unlikely route we see the dawning of that new day when the majority of people are smart enough to not buy into such bullshit?
Don't fear that day. Look forward to it. Even if we do not live to see the sun, at least we can say we tried.
Less disruptive, less likely to answer back, less likely to question whats on offer...all that makes them better students, in a more efficient classroom